We are Ancient Rome

Tuesday night is the President’s State of the Union address. As we’ve already talked about on our show and on this site, Marco Rubio will be giving the official Republican response–both in English and in Spanish. The newest media darling, Rubio is for all intents and purposes, a trial balloon sent up by the MSM and the establishment to see how folks react to the “new face” of the Republican party.

The reaction has been mixed, but it’s still early yet. Rubio seems to be straying farther and farther from his Tea Party roots–from his very early endorsement of Mitt Romney to his side-by-side-with McCain endorsement of “immigration reform” that looks to a lot of folks like amnesty-lite and to others as a “pragmatic” way to address a growing problem.

Are these the lines of demarcation for the 2016 Republican primary? Will the Tea Party adopt the unconventional coalition that follows someone with the “Paul” name? Will Karl Rove and the Establishment sign off on a (former?) Tea Partier like Rubio?

The GOP Establishment and the Illegals

The number two Republican in the House, Eric Cantor (Virginia), said on Sunday he now supports giving citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants. He voted against it in 2010. Now he’s for it. What’s changed? That pesky lost election is what has changed.

Democrats responded right away to Cantor’s generous acquiescence–by saying, “That’s nice. But we want more.” According to Newsmax.com, Dick Durbin, said “his colleagues in the Senate would be pushing for more. “I’ve met these young people, and they will tell you, yes, I want a future, but what about my mom and dad?” Durbin said on “Meet the Press.” “We’re not stopping with the DREAM act, we’re beginning with the DREAM act and pushing forward.”

You got to hand it to them–you may vehemently disagree with it, but at least the Democrats actually fight for something. And why not? When’s the last time the Republicans stopped them? And on this issue, they’ve already given up half the hill.

Obama and the Neurosurgeon

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But perhaps the biggest news from the weekend actually happened at the end of last week at the National Prayer Breakfast. Dr. Ben Carson, renown neurosurgeon from Johns Hopkins University gave an address that seemingly schooled President Barack Obama, who sat just a few mere feet away from him. Carson spoke eloquently about the need for a “biblical” tax reform in our country (advocating a flat tax), how evil our deficit is, the dangers of our current healthcare system and what should be done instead (health savings accounts set up at birth).

(Take note Republicans–this is how you do it. Point out what is wrong, then how to fix it. It’s called “messaging,” and Dr. Carson did it flawlessly.)

Dr. Carson said in a radio interview after the event that he did not mean to specifically call out President Obama. He said this is not a partisan issue (he is an independent). He said simply, America is following in the dangerous footsteps of ancient Rome:

They lost their moral core, their sense of values in terms of who they were. And after all of those things converged together, they just went right down the tubes very quickly.When you look at America, it’s not too hard to see great similarities. We’ve spread ourselves all over the place. We have incredible expenses. We don’t adjust — and, consequently, we expand the deficit and the debt and entitlement programs, and not living within our means and not adjusting programs and not adjusting people’s expectations.When it comes to wanting things, people don’t really care about the national debt,” Carson said. “They don’t really care about the future; they just care about, ‘Give me my check so I can eat next week.’That’s understandable, but we have not created the right kinds of expectations — and we really need to start doing that or we will face a similar fate.”

And just a brief side note: Dr. Carson has been a personal hero of mine since high school when I read his book, Gifted Hands. If you’re looking for some new reading material for your Kindle, Nook, or you still kick it old school, I simply couldn’t recommend this book any more highly.

Author

Jen Green has been communicating from a very early age.
She even got a couple of degrees to help make sure she was doing it right. She has a B.A. in English from Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C, and an M.A. in Rhetoric and Professional Communication from Clemson University in Clemson, S.C. Jen has tried several jobs, the hardest but most rewarding of those was being a stay-at-home mom. Keeping Steve in line for a couple of hours a day during the show is a breeze compared to that. She is wife to Scott and mom to Piper and Ben. They live the the typical American suburban dream with cats, dogs, fish, and the occasional foster toad.